Wednesday, June 7: Saudi Takeover Continues
The petro-drunks are buying all your favorite forms of entertainment
As time progresses, we’ll eventually find that all of our favorite pastimes belong to petro-criminals. What better place to start than the ultimate bore of a pastime, golf. The professional sport of golf belongs to Saudi Arabia now. In a move that surprised almost everyone, news broke yesterday that the PGA Tour has agreed to merge with Saudi-backed rival league LIV Golf in a deal that’ll see the former competitors squash pending litigation and move forward as a larger, fully corrupted golf conglomerate.
The PGA, the world’s most prestigious golf tour, was initially vehemently opposed to LIV Golf’s existence, with top PGA executives set on destroying the new venture and athletes like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy turning down the eight and nine-figure contracts that LIV Golf was offering. The PGA went as far as to ban golfers who signed up with the Saudi tour from PGA events and put intense pressure on other golfers not to join LIV. PGA executives even complained to members of congress about Saudi Arabia’s human rights record. They really pulled out all the stops, but in the end, the money always wins.
Elsewhere, the sportswashing continues as Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund (PIF) will take over four of the kingdom’s top football clubs including Al Nassr, where Cristiano Ronaldo plays. There’s also a growing possibility of a move by Lionel Messi to Saudi Arabia, as the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund took a majority ownership stake of the country’s top 4 clubs. They include Al-Nassr; Al-Ittihad, the new team of Karim Benzema; and Al-Hilal, the team currently being linked with a move for Messi. The Saudis have turned our legends into playthings for a league that no one is watching. The government is reviving a plan to privatize state-owned sports clubs while also attracting top talent by way of throwing absurd sums of money at them.
Beyond sports, the Saudis are also looking to get a stranglehold on other methods of entertainment and distraction. For context, the Saudi government currently has a larger ownership stake in Twitter than the Chinese government has in TikTok. When we talk about foreign governments using social media to influence our thinking and behavior, that would probably be a good place to start.
Side Items
Messi Race: Somehow we find ourselves once again in the midst of another race for the services of Lionel Messi. The Argentina legend is essentially a free agent after saying his “adieu’s” to PSG. That entire project pretty much flopped immediately, which was sad to see. The big question now is where he will go next. As mentioned, there are links to Saudi teams for ridiculous salaries, there’s also the always sentimental pull of Barcelona, where Messi’s father was spotted earlier this week. Some rumors also suggest that Messi could go the American route, joining Inter Miami, the MLS team co-owned by David Beckham. Only time will tell
Wildfire Haze: Smoke from Canada’s wildfires has spread and affected the air quality in much of the northern US, because that’s how climate change works. Nobody is unaffected. The smoke turns the air acrid, the sky becomes a yellowish gray haze and at times we may be forced to reintroduce our old friends, the facial coverings. If you must go out and the sky looks real smokey, maybe consider wearing an N-95 mask. If you’re staying inside, maybe keep those doors and windows shut and run that air conditioning on a recirculation setting. Just an idea
Fugitive Heiress: This article tells the story of Margarida Bonetti, a Brazilian heiress, but also an international fugitive living in Sao Paulo who’s been shielded for decades by the Brazilian constitution’s ban on extraditing its citizens. She’s become something of an internet sensation in Brazil, which would be endearing for the elderly woman, except for the reasons behind her notoriety. Bonetti and her husband were accused of enslaving Hilda Rosa dos Santos, a domestic worker, while living in suburban Maryland for nearly 20 years. Not a great claim to fame